Question: Gabriela bought a new sweatshirt at the store when they were having a $40\%$ off sale. If the regular price of the sweatshirt was $$59$, how much did Gabriela pay with the discount?
First, find the amount of the discount by multiplying the original price of the of the item by the discount. $$59$ $\times$ $40\%$ $=$ Percent means "out of one hundred," so $40\%$ is equivalent to $\frac{40}{100}$ which is also equal to $40 \div 100$ $40 \div 100 = 0.40$ Multiply the discount you just converted into a decimal by the original price to find the amount of money saved. $0.40$ $\times$ $$59$ $ = $ $$23.60$ Subtract the discount you just found from the original price to get the final price Gabriela paid. $$59$ $-$ $$23.60$ $ = $ $$35.40$ Gabriela paid $$35.40$ for the sweatshirt.